OUR NEXT AUDIOBOOK

NEXT RECORDING

We are currently working through a backlog of pre-recorded episodes. Once this is completed we will restart the Audiobook Club again. If you want to be notified when this happens please let us know via the HPR Mailing List 'hpr at hackerpublicradio dot org'.

FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

Nothing this time, well except for the typical Star Wars reference...and Star Trek, and comics.

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section. As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now. http://hackerpublicradio.org/contribute.php

Sincerely,The HPR_AudioBookClub

P.S. Some people really like finding mistakes. For their enjoyment, we always include a few.

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It has been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz. Resampling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with its default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with its default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extremely effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying actual content, and it makes conversations sound as easy and fluid during playback as it was while it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to ONLY pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too agressively your audio may sound sped up and choppy.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember save after every major transform, you will wonder how it even got that reputation.

Things We Talked About

http://gplus.to/mikerm will link to everything else. It's also where I hang out the most. I post samples of whatever I'm working on at the moment on G+ most Saturdays, as part of the #saturdayscenes group.
http://csidemedia.com/gryphonclerks is my blog. There's a signup link for the mailing list in the sidebar, or the direct link is:
http://eepurl.com/vB-t5
There's some member-only content for mailing list members, and I'm planning to release another piece of content for them soon (a 12,000-word novelette in my Gryphon Clerks setting).

Mike's G+ Page: http://gplus.to/mikerm

OUR NEXT AUDIOBOOK

NEXT RECORDING

Our next book club recording will be 2015/02/10T23:00:00+00:00. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Times. If you'd like a Google calendar invite, or if you'd like to be on the HPR_AudioBookClub mailing list, please get in contact with us on the HPR mailing list 'hpr at hackerpublicradio dot org'

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now.

P.S. Some people really like finding mistakes. For their enjoyment, we always include a few.

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It's been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz. Resampling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

Next we use the "Compressor" effect with the following settings:

Threshold: -30db

Noise Floor: -50db

Ratio: 3:1

Attack Time: 0.2sec

Decay Time: 1.0 sec

"Make-up Gain for 0db after compressing" and "compress based on peaks" were both left un-checked.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with its default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with its default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extremely effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying actual content, and it makes a conversations sound as easy and fluid during playback as it was while it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to ONLY pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too aggressively your audio may sound sped up and choppy.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR FTP server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember save after every major transform, you will wonder how it ever got that reputation.

FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now.

P.S. Some people really like finding mistakes. For their enjoyment, we always include a few.

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It's been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz. Resampling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

Next we use the "Compressor" effect with the following settings:

Threshold: -30db

Noise Floor: -50db

Ratio: 3:1

Attack Time: 0.2sec

Decay Time: 1.0 sec

"Make-up Gain for 0db after compressing" and "compress based on peaks" were both left un-checked.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with it's default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with it's default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extremely effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying actual content, and it makes a conversations sound as easy and fluid during playback as it was while it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to ONLY pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too aggressively your audio may sound sped up and choppy.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR FTP server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember save after every major transform, you will wonder how it ever got that reputation.

SUMMARY

In this episode, the HPR_AudioBookClub discusses Cybrosis by P. C. Haring.

Non-Spoiler Thoughts

Everyone agreed that the audio quality and engineering was excellent. The voice acting was just as good. pokey was bothered by something in the main character's voice that he likened to (but wasn't) hearing someone chew gum while talking.

BEVERAGE REVIEWS

As usual, the HPR_AudioBookClub took some time to review the beverages that each of us were drinking during the episode

Thaj: Just a big latte mug full of good old fashioned Swiss Miss hot chocolate

Things We Talked About

OUR NEXT AUDIOBOOK

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It's been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz. Resampling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

Next we use the "Compressor" effect with the following settings:

Threshold: -30db

Noise Floor: -50db

Ratio: 3:1

Attack Time: 0.2sec

Decay Time: 1.0 sec

"Make-up Gain for 0db after compressing" and "compress based on peaks" were both left un-checked.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with it's default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with its default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extremely effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying actual content, and it makes a conversations sound as easy and fluid during playback as it was while it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to ONLY pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too aggressively your audio may sound sped up and choppy.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR FTP server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember save after every major transform, you will wonder how it ever got that reputation.

FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page; HPR could really use your help right now.

THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT THIS TIME

OUR NEXT AUDIOBOOK

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It's been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz (Tracks > Resample > 44100). Resampling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

Next we use the "Compressor" effect with the following settings:

Threshold: -30db

Noise Floor: -50db

Ratio: 3:1

Attack Time: 0.2sec

Decay Time: 1.0 sec

"Make-up Gain for 0db after compressing" and "compress based on peaks" were both left un-checked.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with it's default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with it's default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extremely effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying or distorting any actual content. It makes a conversation sound as fluid during playback as it was when it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE, and ONLY ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too aggressively your audio may sound very choppy, and un-natural.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR FTP server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember save after every major transform, you will wonder how it ever got that reputation.

FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

A Small Room in Koboldtown (Escape Pod podcast Episode 157) by By Michael Swanwick & read by Cheyenne Wright
A Small Room in Koboldtown

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page. HPR could really use your help right now.

SUMMARY

In this episode, the HPR_AudioBookClub interviews David Collins-Rivera.

David's Writing

David's Voice work and Acting

(summary)

BEVERAGE REVIEWS

As usual, the HPR_AudioBookClub took some time to review the beverages that each of us were drinking during the episode

x1101: Green & Mint tea. Very mellow and refreshing

Thaj: Typical homemade lemonade. Teeth rotting good :)

pokey: I was drinking a can of Polar Lime Seltzer. I love seltzer, and lime is my favorite flavor. I think that seltzer feels (not tastes!) like cheap beer, and I once used it to help me quit drinking beer. I have since quit quitting beer, but I now I can't quit seltzer

Things We Talked About

OUR NEXT AUDIOBOOK

pegwole suggested this AudioBook, and we all thought that horror was a pretty good selection for our October episode.

NEXT RECORDING

Our next book club recording will be 2014/10/14T23:00:00+00:00. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Times If you'd like a Google calendar invite, or if you'd like to be on the HPR_AudioBookClub mailing list, please get in contact with us on the HPR mailing list 'hpr at hackerpublicradio dot org'

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It's been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz. Resampeling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

Next we use the "Compressor" effect with the following settings:

Threshold: -30db

Noise Floor: -50db

Ratio: 3:1

Attack Time: 0.2sec

Decay Time: 1.0 sec

"Make-up Gain for 0db after compressing" and "compress based on peaks" were both left un-checked.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with it's default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with it's default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extreemly effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying actual content, and it makes a conversations sound as easy and fluid during playback as it was while it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to ONLY pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too agressively your audio may sound sped up and choppy.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR FTP server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember save after every major transform, you will wonder how it ever got that reputation.

FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now.

Pre-Spoilers

Thaj: Great book. Makes me want to go back and re-read the previous book. I wonder how well some of the commentary present in this book will resonate in the future. The story is good enough I have no doubt that it will still be a good read, but I'm not sure if it might loose a bit.

x1101: I Loved this book. So much so that I listened to it twice. Every chapter is a cliff hanger.

pokey: I LOVE this AudioBook! The author (Lostinbronx) really made me care about each of the characters. Every chapter is a cliff hanger, and that WORKS precisely because I do care about the characters.

pegwole: It was a fantastic post modern essay on life. Even though I listened to the wrong AudioBook.

CrispyoneFifty: Speaking for all of humanity, to all of humanity's future, I say "you should go download and listen to this AudioBook!"

(summary)

BEVERAGE REVIEWS

As usual, the HPR_AudioBookClub took some time to review the beverages that each of us were drinking during the episode

pokey: I drank a Six Star Creatine fruit punch because I'm tired of looking like Ejoq. I have to go to the gym after the show, and this stuff seems to help with muscle recovery. It tastes pretty good. There's no funny artificial sweetener after taste, for which I'm very grateful. http://www.sixstarpro.com/products/creatinex3/

OUR NEXT AUDIOBOOK

pegwole suggested this AudioBook, and we all thought that horror was a pretty good selection for our October recording.

NEXT RECORDING

We record the second Tuesday of every month at 20:00 Eastern US time Which = the second Wednesday of each month at 01:00z (unless its daylight saving time, then its the second Tuesday 24:00zhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Times If you'd like a Google calendar invite, or if you'd like to be on the HPR_AudioBookClub mailing list, please get in contact with us on the HPR mailing list 'hpr at hackerpublicradio dot org.' We're way behind on publishing, so if you want to join us, get in contact one of these ways and we'll let you know what the current book is.

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now.

SUMMARY

In this episode, the HPR_AudioBookClub reviews Revolution Radio by Seth Kenlon. You can download this AudioBook for free from http://aesdiopod.com/books/.

Pre-Spoilers

Thaj: I really loved this book. It hits me in a lot of the right spots as a person. I thought it had a very cinematic feel about it. I enjoyed the story, but in many ways I enjoyed the world it was set in even more.

x1101: Slow start, but finally builds to a very engaging story exploring many interesting social and political issues

Pokey: Slow start, really liked the story right from the start, but found the setting a little far fetched.

We all liked the pace of the story, as well as the reading and the audio quality. Overall this is a very polished work, even though there is some noise intentionally added at times.

BEVERAGE REVIEWS

As usual, the HPR_AudioBookClub took some time to review the beverages that each of us were drinking during the episode

Thaj: I am a sad panda because they grocery store had no lemons to make my AWESOME homemade lemonade. Unfortunately, I had to resort to pre-made lemonade that tastes like sugar water. Check this nutritional information

x1101 Dogfish head 120 minute IPAThis beer has a nice hoppy and citrus nose to it with a smooth, silky mouth feel. This beverage features subtle hoppy notes and a slightly smoky finish. Also, ~15% ABV, so I might have been a touch loopy the rest of the show

Pokey had a Sam Adams Summer Ale. Nice flavor, but not a lot of it. Refreshing with a hint of citrus. Very drinkable, but not mind blowing. I suspect this beer appeals to a wide audience. I've been on more of a "specialty" beer kick for a while, so this was almost disapointing.http://www.samueladams.com/craft-beers/summer-ale/

NEXT RECORDING

Our next book club recording will be 2014/09/09T23:00:00+00:00. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Times If you'd like a Google calendar invite, or if you'd like to be on the HPR_AudioBookClub mailing list, please get in contact with us on the HPR mailing list 'hpr at hackerpublicradio dot org'

OUR AUDIO

This episode was processed using Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. We've been making small adjustments to our audio mix each month in order to get the best possible sound. It's been especially challenging getting all of our voices relatively level, because everyone has their own unique setup. Mumble is great for bringing us all together, and for recording, but it's not good at making everyone's voice the same volume. We're pretty happy with the way this month's show turned out, so we'd like to share our editing process and settings with you and our future selves (who, of course, will have forgotten all this by then).

Mumble uses a sample rate of 48kHz, but HPR requires a sample rate of 44.1kHz so the first step in our audio process is to resample the file at 44.1kHz. Resampling can take a long time if you don't have a powerful computer, and sometimes even if you do. If you record late at night, like we do, you may want to start the task before you go to bed, and save it first thing in the morning, so that the file is ready to go the next time you are.

Next we use the "Compressor" effect with the following settings:

Threshold: -30db

Noise Floor: -50db

Ratio: 3:1

Attack Time: 0.2sec

Decay Time: 1.0 sec

"Make-up Gain for 0db after compressing" and "compress based on peaks" were both left un-checked.

After compressing the audio we cut any pre-show and post-show chatter from the file and save them in a separate file for possible use as outtakes after the closing music.

At this point we listen back to the whole file and we work on the shownotes. This is when we can cut out anything that needs to be cut, and we can also make sure that we put any links in the shownotes that were talked about during the recording of the show. We finish the shownotes before exporting the .aup file to .FLAC so that we can paste a copy of the shownotes into the audio file's metadata. We use the "Truncate Silence" effect with its default settings to minimize the silence between people speaking. When used with its default (or at least reasonable) settings, Truncate Silence is extremely effective and satisfying. It makes everyone sound smarter, it makes the file shorter without destroying actual content, and it makes a conversations sound as easy and fluid during playback as it was while it was recorded. It can be even more effective if you can train yourself to remain silent instead of saying "uuuuummmm." Just remember to ONLY pass the file through Truncate Silence ONCE. If you pass it through a second time, or if you set it too aggressively your audio may sound sped up and choppy.

At this point we add new, empty audio tracks into which we paste the intro, outro and possibly outtakes, and we rename each track accordingly.

We adjust the Gain so that the VU meter in Audacity hovers around -12db while people are speaking, and we try to keep the peaks under -6db, and we adjust the Gain on each of the new tracks so that all volumes are similar, and more importantly comfortable. Once this is done we can "Mix and Render" all of our tracks into a single track for export to the .FLAC file which is uploaded to the HPR FTP server.

Remember to save often when using Audacity. We like to save after each of these steps. Audacity has a reputation for being "crashy" but if you remember to save after every major transform, you will wonder how it ever got that reputation.

FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section.
As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now.

P.S. Some people really like finding mistakes. For their enjoyment, we always include a few.

1: The HPR_AudioBookClub doesn't laugh at anyone for reviewing tea, nor any other drink. We intentionally call the segment a "beverage review," not a "beer review" so that no one should feel alienated. Also because some of us drink wine.

2: The HPR_AudioBookClub does laugh when people try to spell flavor with a "u"

SUMMARY

In this episode, the HPR_AudioBookClub reviews Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. You can download this AudioBook for free (or voluntary donation) from podiobooks.com. http://podiobooks.com/title/down-and-out-in-the-magic-kingdom/ and it's also available in just about every ebook format you can imagine on Cory's website craphound.com. http://craphound.com/down/?page_id=1625 and as a paperback through various booksellers. We found this AudioBook enjoyable and thought provoking. The general consensus that we seem to have reached is that while the book left the reader with many unanswered questions about the world in which the book was set, they are welcome questions. It's brain bending fun.

FiftyOneFifty (the link-king) found some cool links relating to the Haunted House and how it works. Check these out!

I listened to this book in the space of a couple of days mostly. At first it took some time to get into but then was quite enjoyable, however in the second half I started to find it a bit hard going. The story is told exclusively in the first person (I think that's right) and as the story went on I found it quite difficult not having external points of view or reference. This is probably also due to good story telling as the main Character Jules is also getting frustrated and is increasingly isolated. The book was interesting and unique even before you got to the plot line and aspects of the world the characters were living in. I would recommend the book as an example of an interesting method of story telling and I'm keen to pick up the other big Cory Doctorow book, "Little Brother".

gigasphere's spoilers (Highlight to read)

From having read the wikipedia page on Cory I can see that Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which is Cory's first novel, seems to have a trademark extrapolation with our own reality. The concept of backing up you mind and being brought back from the dead in a clone seems an excellent example of hyper-our-reality at the moment, but to then have everyone capable of being online using implants is also amazingly realistic when you consider the almost boom in wearables going on and the ubiquity of smartphones. I am reminded of the xkcd comic where the guy was having a USB port implanted.http://xkcd.com/644/The whuffie aspect of the book which replaces money, reminds me a lot of the social media thing of being rated by how many 'followers' or 'likes' or may be even 'hits' you get. This also oddly reminds me of the download stats discussion on the mailing list at the moment.I'm not sure I'll add much to the overall discussion of the book from here as my no spoiler summary really rounds up the book for me. I would have liked to have a broader telling of the story, particularly from Lil's perspective, but the restrictions placed on the story also work to make it great, in that you are forced, as in real life, to view the world through only one person's eyes.

BEVERAGE REVIEWS

We think you'll agree that the HPR_AudioBookClub really showed up for this one and they brought some all-star beverages. Please enjoy this episode responsibly.

FiftyOneFifty was slightly disappointed by his German style Doublebock, FIREMAN'S BREW: Brunette. He says it's an unprepossessing brew, but perhaps worth it for fans of beer made with chocolate malts. Not very sweet for a dopplebock, and without much hops note except for a slight spicy kick, despite a general thinness in the flavor, it has enough cocoa flavor to satisfy fans of beers made with chocolate malt, at least until they find a better one.http://www.firemansbrew.com/offdutydrinks-brunette

This month gigasphere wrote in to say,"It's hot over here in the UK South East at the moment (25-30 degrees Celsius, yes that's hot for here!) and I'm swamped with work so I have a really boring Apple and Elderflower Juice for my drink this month. I have an Ale on the shelf that I haven't tried before but will save that for next time round when I should have a more manageable workload. On the plus side my juice is really cold and refreshing with a really strong and pleasant flavour (sic)2. It's a fresh juice and so has been kept refrigerated. Now everyone can stop laughing1 at me and get back to their proper drinks!"http://www.copellafruitjuices.co.uk/juices

Rather than simply reviewing a beverage like the rest of us, Thaj (attention seeker that he is) risked his life on the show by ingesting a potentially lethal amount of Dihydrogen Monoxide! The HPR_AudioBookClub does not condone this type of risky behavior, and if you are entertained by it, then you're probably a bad person.http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

OUR NEXT TWO AUDIOBOOKS

We're really excited about these two AudioBooks because both of these authors are HPR community members! We're assigning both at once because one is pretty short, and one is pretty long. We were a little worried that people might not finish Street Candles in time to participate, and we think this scheme may buy participants the time they they/we need.

NEXT RECORDING

Our next book club recording will be 2014/08/12T23:00:00+00:00. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Times If you'd like a Google calendar invite, or if you'd like to be on the HPR_AudioBookClub mailing list, please get in contact with us on the HPR mailing list 'hpr at hackerpublicradio dot org'

FEEDBACK

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of the HPR_AudioBookClub. We had a great time recording this show, and we hope you enjoyed it as well. We also hope you'll consider joining us next time. Please leave a few words in the episode's comment section. As always; remember to visit the HPR contribution page HPR could really use your help right now.

P.S. Some people really like finding mistakes. For their enjoyment, we always include a few.

1: The HPR_AudioBookClub doesn't laugh at anyone for reviewing tea, nor any other drink. We intentionally call the segment a "beverage review," not a "beer review" so that no one should feel alienated. Also because some of us drink wine.

2: The HPR_AudioBookClub does laugh when people try to spell flavor with a "u"

Three out of four of us liked this book, and we all had some good things to say about it. While it's true that this is an entertaining story set in a super hero world, we found it it more amusing and more thought provoking than your average super hero story.

As usual, during this episode of the AudioBookClub the hosts have each reviewed a beverage of their choice.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT HPR_AudioBookClub SNEAK PREVIEW!!!
Sometime in the not-too-distant future we'll be reviewing Street Candles by HPR's very own David Collins Rivera (aka Lostinbronx). Street Candles is not finished yet, but is available via RSS and Lostinbronx publishes a new episode each week. This book is excellent, and you'll want to say you were there to see it happen. Head over to LNB's site for all the details http://www.cavalcadeaudio.com/ and remember to subscribe to his RSS feed:

As usual, during this episode of the AudioBookClub the hosts have each reviewed a beverage of their choice.
Morgellon drank a Bourbon and soda, but not during the show because he was driving. He recommends both Woodford Reserve http://www.woodfordreserve.com/ and Evan Williams Bourbons http://www.evanwilliams.com/
x1101 drank Wild Turkey 101 proof Bourbon http://wildturkeybourbon.com/
pokey drank a cup of Oolong tea. It was probably a little stale, but pokey is a knuckle dragger, so he didn't notice at all. http://www.foojoyteas.com/teabag.php . This was the first time that pokey has reviewed an NA beverage for the AudioBookClub, so we apologize if the show has suffered because of it.
Thaj won the Non-Alcoholic division hands down with a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade.
Colin couldn't make it to this recording because of time zone differences, but he did write in. I'll add his note to the episode comments. Please add your own comment as well. His beverage however was an Innis and Gunn Original http://www.innisandgunn.com/the-range/core-range/original/ to which he gives his thumb up.

There are several ways to submit feedback for this episode including the HPR mail list hpr@hackerpublicradio.org, and the episode's comment section
Morgellon is reachable via twitter @lowtekmorgellon or email morgellon@gmail.com
x1101 can be reached via twitter @x1101, StatusNet @x1101/micro.fragdev.com and email x1101@gmx.com
Thaj can be reached by email thajasara@gmail.com
pokey prefers his feedback to come via the HackerPublicRadio comment system, but is also usually available on StatusNet @pokey/micro.fragdev.com

During this show the hosts also discuss beverages.
Colin was drinking a Badger Brewery Golden Glory, and quite enyoyed it. http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk/beer/golden-glory
pokey drank a Fosters Lager, and he didn't like it very much. Thankfully he only wanted it for the can. Sadly, it really seemed to go straight to his head. http://www.fostersbeer.com/
According to Fosters' website, "You need to upgrade your Flash Player." Good luck with that.

Our next audiobook will be The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan
http://podiobooks.com/title/the-crown-conspiracy/
This book was suggested by pokey. pokey likes The Crown Conspiracy very much and has found it appropriate to suggest to both his mother and his daughter.

In this episode of the HPR Audiobook Club Broam, Jonathan Nadeau, pokey and Christiana Ellis discuss the podiobooks.com presentation of Space Casey written and produced by Christiana Ellis. This episode contains spoilers in the second half, so please listen to the audiobook for yourself before listening to the podcast all the way through. This audiobook was liked by all of the panellists on this episode.

Christiana Ellis

http://christianaellis.com/?feed=podcast
You can send feedback directly to Christiana via email christianaDOTellisATgmailDOTcom and as always your feedback is welcome in the comments section of every episode.

In this episode of the HPR audio book club resno, Klaatu, and pokey discuss the podiobooks.com presentation of Dead Hunt written and produced by Kenn Crawford. This episode contains spoilers, in the second half, so please listen to the audiobook for yourself before listening to the podcast all the way through. This audiobook was loved by two of the panelists, and liked by the third.

Our next audiobook will be Space Casey by Christiana Ellis. It is available at podiobooks.com The direct link is:http://www.podiobooks.com/title/space-casey
This audiobook comes with a thumbs way up rating from pokey (as he's heard it already). So if you agree with his other picks then don't miss this one.

In this episode of the HPR audio book club Broam, resno, Dann Washko, Integgroll, and pokey discuss the podiobooks.com presentation of Handbook for the Criminally Insane written and read by Brian Holtz. This episode contains spoilers, in the second half, so please listen to the audiobook for yourself before listening to the podcast all the way through. This book was met with polarizingly mixed reviews. Some thought it was a light hearted horror comedy in the spirit of Bruce Campbell while others thought it was something less entertaining.

In this episode of the HPR audio book club Dann Washko, Integgroll, and pokey discuss the podiobooks.com presentation of Shadowmagic written and read by John Lenahan. Also Ken Fallon has recorded a very special opening segment which we've included for your edification. This episode contains spoilers, in the second half, so please listen to the audiobook for yourself before listening to the podcast all the way through. All three hosts and our guest, Ken Fallon, enjoyed and recommend the book.

In the first HPR audio book club show Dann Washko, Integgroll, and pokey discuss the podiobooks.com presentation of Badge Of Infamy written by Lester Del Rey, and read by Steven Wilson. This episode contains spoilers, in the second half, so please listen to the audiobook for yourself before listening to the podcast all the way through. All three hosts enjoyed and recommend the book.